Humax LP32-TDR1 32in LCD TV & PVR review

Summary

Our Score:

7

If you’ve ever spent weeks arguing with other halves about owning AV gear because of all the ‘clutter’ it makes, then the Humax LP32-TDR1 could just be the answer to your prayers – not to mention the saviour of your relationship.

How come? Because it’s two, arguably even three home cinema gadgets all wrapped up in a single, rather fetching little body. The sort of thing, in other words, that not even the most Chintz-loving technophobe could reasonably complain about.

The first thing the LP32 is, of course, is a TV – and an HD Ready TV at that, thanks to its 32in, 16:9 aspect ratio screen playing host to a pixel count of 1,366 x 768. Other specs of interest for the TV part of the LP32 include the use of Faroudja’s renowned DCDi image processing/deinterlacing system, picture in picture functionality, and the provision among its connections of HDMI, component, PC, Scart, S-Video and composite video, as well as a digital audio output for shipping 5.1-channel audio from digital broadcasts and HDMI inputs to a surround sound receiver if you have one.

It’s a shame that there’s only one HDMI, but considering how much else the LP32 is giving you for £900, we guess it’s just about acceptable. The HDMI is only a 1.2-spec effort, by the way, not one of the new feature and performance-boosting 1.3 types just starting to appear on one or two high-end TVs.

The second key function that LP32 has is a digital video recording. For remarkably it sports a built-in hard disk drive (HDD) recording system with a seriously healthy 160GB of storage space. That’s enough for up to 100 hours of recordings, with the exact amount depending on which of the three provided recording quality options you plump for.

Inevitably there are limitations to what this HDD system can do; you can’t, say, record HD material from external AV sources like a Sky HD receiver or Blu-ray player. But it will record absolutely anything you like from the built-in Freeview tuner.

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